Tech innovation and job opportunities for all

Since my last blog entry about President Bush was so popular (not), I thought I'd go out on a limb today and discuss a recent - but unrelated - news story about GWB: "Bush shows support for tech industry."

According to the story, "Bush spent the week promoting his American Competitiveness Initiative, which proposes spending $136 billion over 10 years. The bill has the support of many Silicon Valley leaders, including [Cisco CEO John] Chambers, who noted that China and India are producing 10 times as many Ph.D. graduates as the U.S. is. Chambers spoke about the need to allow technology companies to hire the brightest minds—even if these skilled workers come from overseas." In fact, Bush is quoted as saying, "I love being the president of a country where people can come with nothing and start their own business."

This news story also offers a video clip of Bush's panel discussion at Cisco Systems headquarters. And yes, he talks about the beloved iPod once again.

In my previous Bush blog, I think I made it painfully clear that I dislike talking about politics, simply because of the "virtual wedgie" factor (as I eloquently put it, "...some people have such strong opinions about politics and religion that they end up getting their undies in a bunch..."). Don't worry, Bush fans - there will be no Bush bashing in this blog post. However, I do have a couple questions concerning the American Competitiveness Initiative if anyone out there is more knowledgeable about this topic than I am. Here goes:

If we hire skilled workers from overseas, won't that displace a lot of American workers?

If we plan to use a bigger chunk of our tax dollars for R&D, won't a lot of other things that need federal funding suffer as a result?